


The Daughters of Cain

by LectorEl



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Daddy Issues, F/F, Gen, Stephanie Cain and Cassandra Brown, or in this case
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-26
Updated: 2013-11-26
Packaged: 2018-01-02 17:41:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1059689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LectorEl/pseuds/LectorEl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The League of Assassins has internal politics, just like any other organization, and David Cain pisses off the wrong person. His plan to raise a martial artist prodigy is thrown off-course when his chosen subject is replaced.</p><p>Years later, Cassandra Brown's got her own problems. Like an overly suspicious man in a bat suit who doesn't trust her motives for being a vigilante, a mother who still can't look her straight in the eye, and a mute new friend with a thing for eggplant-purple.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Daughters of Cain

Cass is young when she realizes she’s different from her parents. Her pre-school teacher asks her parents if they’re making sure she knows her ‘native culture’, and Mr. Addams, two apartments over, mutters about race-mixing whenever he sees her. Mom’s face always falls when Cass asks about it though, so she learns not to mention it. She stares at her face in the mirror, trying to find some trace of mom or dad in it, and never finds any. Her black hair is thinner than either of her parents, and her eyes are a darker, sharper brown than even dad’s are.

She can’t remember when it was that she learned about Stephanie. Kindergarten, or maybe first grade, laying a library book open on the kitchen table, and pointing out the picture of a woman with ‘Asian’ printed above her head in neat block letters.

Dad is the one to explain, though it doesn’t explain much of anything. There was another baby. Her parents real baby, though dad doesn’t put it quite like that. But the baby got sick and they took her to a clinic, and the baby they got back wasn’t the right one. The baby was Cass. Cass doesn’t understand how you could not realize you took home a different baby than the one you left home with, but she knows better than to ask. Mom wouldn’t like it.

Cass was the wrong baby. That’s all. And somewhere out there is the right one, Stephanie. Her parents real daughter.

***

She clung to the cornice of the old Baxter building, straining to hear her dad's voice over the howl of one of Gotham's thunderstorms.

He'd sworn he'd reformed. He'd promised her he was going straight, doing things right. That this time was different, promise baby girl.

Filthy fucking _liar_. Arthur Brown didn't keep half the promises he made, and even she knew that. She'd just hoped. Stupid little girl hopes, from the part of Cass that was still six and would do anything for Daddy's smile.

Her homemade cape was soaked through, clinging to her goose-pimpling skin, and the rain was starting to soak through to the sweatshirt she had on under the mock tunic she'd made out of thin, walmart brand cotton-spandex blend. Her hair was plastered to the face and neck, her black spray-painted gym shoes were squishy, and the clearance sale cargo pants she had on were threatening to tear at the knees.

This was stupid. Dad was never going to reform. Just like mom was never going to look her in the eye when she said 'I love you,' and the kids at school weren't going to stop sneering 'chink' when the teachers weren't listening. Nothing ever got better in this city, and nothing ever would.

Cass sighed, and started heading home. It took her the better part of an hour to cross the city with the storm. When she finally crawled in through her bedroom window, she nearly cried from relief. She wearily stripped off her cheap costume, tossed the cape and tunic into an empty plastic laundry basket along with her damp shoes, and dumped the rest of her clothing into her hamper. She had school in the morning. She might as well get some sleep.

Two nights later, Cass was back up on the roof, listening to her dad break his promises, and made her decision. If Dad couldn’t go straight... Cass was going to make sure he faced the consequences of his decision. Someone needed to keep watch.

***

Robin knocked on her window. “You in, Cass?”

“No, this is the Martian Manhunter. Cass is filling in for me at the watchtower,” Cass said over her shoulder, and was rewarded by his choked off snicker.

“You're bad,” Robin said, unfastening the gorget of his cape and draping it across her desk's swivel chair.

“And you love me anyway,” Cass said, finally turning to look at her visitor. He carefully removed his domino, and smiled at Cass. She rose from her bed and hugged him tightly. “I've missed you, boy wonder.”

“You too, Cass. We could use Watcher out there.” Robin sighed, tension seeping out of him, and let his head sag against Cass' shoulder. Cass shifted one hand to pet his sweaty hair.

“Mom says it's only another week or two till I can run on my ankle again.” She didn't mention how unlikely she found it that Bat 'stick-up-his-ass' Man or the rest of his band of merry men actually wanted her back on the street.

Robin mmphed. “That's good. We should celebrate. Has N taken you train surfing yet?”

“Not yet.” Not ever, the way things were going. Which hurt, despite her best efforts to pretend otherwise. If she couldn't even win over _Nightwing_ , how was she ever going to get the rest of Robin's family to resign themselves to her presence on the streets and in his life?

“Good.” She felt Robin smile against her shoulder. “I get to do it.”

Cass laughed, and tugged them both back down onto her bed. “Sadist. I knew it,” she accused lightly.

“I can neither confirm nor deny,” Robin said, voice going sleepy. “Mmm. Wake me up in an hour?”

“Sure, boy wonder.” Cass reached over to set her alarm, looped her arm around his waist loosely, and closed her eyes.

It seemed like only moments before her alarm was beeping, and Cass sat up, startled by the sounds of early morning. Her alarm clock read 6:35, the green numerals glowing cheerfully in the pre-dawn light.

There was a note tucked underneath the alarm clock.

_You didn't wake up before I had leave, and I know you need more sleep. Sorry for slipping out. See you before patrol?_

_-R_

_p.s. good luck with your math test_

“I know you have my room bugged, Oracle,” Cass said. “Tell him tonight works. Please.” It couldn't hurt to be polite.

Cass grabbed a change of clothes, and just like she'd been doing since Robin had told her about Oracle's peeping tom tendencies, retreated down the hall to change in the bathroom. If Oracle had that room bugged, Cass wanted to remain ignorant.

Getting down the stairs was still a little tricky, but Cass managed. She grabbed an apple from the basket that the hospital had given mom to mark her tenth year working there, and tucked it into the pocket of her oversized military jacket. A quick check revealed mom was asleep on the couch, still in her scrubs. Cass detoured to grab the blanket from mom's bed, and draped it over her shoulders on her way out.

“See you, mom,” Cass whispered. She walked out of the house, locked the door behind her, and headed for the bus station.

School was miserable, like always. Eight period Algebra was a special sort of miserable, since Mr. Leonards believed in grading tests in class whenever possible. So Cass got to see just how badly she'd failed, and show her mom the same thing, once she got home. Mom wasn't happy with her.

By the time Robin knocked on her window that evening, Cass was done crying, and her eyes weren't red unless you looked closely. She crawled out onto the roof, and hugged him impulsively. Robin, bless him, hugged her back until she was ready to let go.

“How'd your math test go?” he asked.

“Flubbed it. D plus,” Cass said, looking down. “Mom and I had a huge blow-up over it.”

Robin winced. “Want to talk about it?”

“We got into the 'my real daughter would have done better' territory. No, I don't want to talk.” Cass stared out into the night. “I miss my dad. He was a dick, but he never said things like that.”

Robin wrapped his arm around her in an awkward half-hug, not saying anything. What was there to say? The issue of Cass's real parentage, and the baby that would have been named Stephanie never really went away. Cass couldn't even blame her mom- it wasn't like she'd agreed to adopt Cass, or to give up Stephanie. But it hurt. It hurt a lot. There was nothing she could do to ever surpass what Stephanie _might_ have done.

 _Suck it up, Cass_ , she told herself. Life sucks, and then you die. That's just how it worked, and that was what she had to work with.

***

Two days a week after school, and every Saturday morning, Cass spent a few hours shelving books at the Gotham Public Library in exchange for payment under the table. It worked out for everybody- Cass got to set her own hours, and the library didn’t have to pay her minimum wage.

Plus, there was Ms. Li, who came to the library every afternoon, and had decided Cass needed to know more about her own heritage. Cass wasn’t even sure if she was Chinese, but had decided not to point that little fact out. It was nice to pretend she came from somewhere.

“Wu an hao, Ms. Li,” Cass said, smiling at the older woman.

Ms. Li nodded approvingly. “Wu an hao, Cassandra.” Cass sat down across from the older woman, tucking her legs up under her on the chair.

They were barely fifteen minutes into the lesson when there was the sound of stone crumbling. That was the only warning before the world shook apart. Concrete and mortar crumbled, books threw themselves off shelves, entire stacks toppled. Cass half fell from her chair, throwing herself over Ms. Li.  Something struck her back, sharp-edged and heavy. Pain bloomed in red bursts before her eyes, and swept her under.

When Cass opened her eyes again, it was dark, only a few slanting rays of light breaking through the rubble.

“Ms. Li?” She whispered, trying not to move. Ms. Li moaned, but didn’t reply. Worry jolted through her.  What if something was seriously wrong? “Shit. Ms. Li, _please_.”

Cass wiggled until she was in a better position, gritting her teeth to ignore the pain lancing through her. A bloody gash was torn open on Ms. Li’s head, and her pupils were dilated. Not good. Very not good. Cass struggled to remember her first aid training, trying to beat back the panic that fluttered around the edges of her thoughts. Concussions - you were supposed to keep the person awake, right? Or at least wake them up once an hour. And she should probably do something about the gash.

“I don’t know if you can understand what I’m saying, Ms. Li, but it will be alright. Trust me, okay?” Cass kept up a steady stream of chatter, light and meaningless, as she did what she could to tend to the older woman.

Rubble started to shift, and there was the soft sound of feet crunching across broken glass and crumbled concrete. Cass nearly sobbed in relief. “We’re here! Over here!”

The sound of crunching glass grew louder, approaching at rapid speed. Rubble shifted, and Cass saw a flash of blonde hair and an oversized purple sweater before the girl who'd saved them pushed her aside and lifted Ms. Li in a fireman's carry. Cass glanced between Ms. Li and the rubble of the half collapsed library. There were people still down here, she knew that, but Ms. Li...

Their rescuer flapped her hand at Cass to go. "Right. Take care of her, please."

The girl nodded and started crawling out of the rubble, careful to protect Ms. Li's head. Cass turned away, reached into her pocket and pulled out her penlight, and made her way deeper into the building's ruin. There had been at least fifty people in the library basement when the quake hit. Cass shouldered her way in, heading for the children’s corner.

She’d gathered up the three surviving toddlers, and was herding them back out when her rescuer returned, baggy purple sweatshirt flecked with drying brown spots. Cass beckoned her over.

“Can you take them out like you did Ms. Li? I’ll go back and search, and you can get them to the surface,” Cass said, glancing over her shoulder and trying to remember where people had been sitting.

“Mmh-hmm,” the other girl agreed, ducking down to coax the children closer to her with odd little cooing noises. Cass’s eyebrows shot up. _Weird_. But if it worked, who was she to comment?

Cass and her unnamed helper had a pretty good system going by the time the official rescue workers showed up. Nearly three quarters of the library had been searched, and Cass was debating whether it was a good idea to brave the remaining half of the second story or not. She flopped down on the ground, exhausted, and cast her eyes around the area, looking for a vending machine or a semi-working fountain.

A glass bottle of juice was thrust into her face. Cass looked up to see her rescue partner grinning at her, eyebrow cocked.

“Thank you,” Cass said fervently, taking the bottle and twisting the top off. The other girl shrugged, sitting down next to Cass and taking a drink from her own bottle. Cass closed her eyes. She was hot, and tired, and it felt so good to sit down...

...She woke up with her head pillowed on the other girls shoulder. The sun had set, and the dim glimmer of stars could be seen in the night sky. Cass shivered. The light pollution from the city drowned out the stars, normally. It wasn’t right to see them this deep in the interior.

“Fuck!” Cass bolted upright, throwing a brief, apologetic glance at the other girl. “My mom must be _frantic_. I’ve gotta go.” She ran. Nobody bothered her on her run home, not even when she had to detour around a fallen building into Los Lobos territory. She’d wonder about that, other times. Now, though, she was just grateful nobody stopped her.

“Mom!” Cass called as she burst in through their - thankfully intact - front door. “Mom? Mom, are you in here?” Nothing. Dread knotted in her stomach. “Mom, come on, this isn’t funny.” Nobody upstairs, and nobody downstairs. The house was empty.

“…mom?”

Dizziness swept over her like a wave. Mom wasn’t here. Cass stared around the lightless living room blankly. Mom had said she’d be home tonight. They’d made plans to watch a movie.

What was she supposed to do now?

Footsteps. Cass whirled around. It was the girl from the library. She smiled tentatively at Cass, and waved, her blond hair falling out of its tail in messy knots.

“Hey,” Cass said, and collapsed on the couch. She didn’t have anything left in her to be surprised. “You followed me?” The girl nodded, and cautiously approached Cass.

“Come on, sit down. If you’re here to rob us blind, boy did you pick the wrong house.” The girl ignored that and sat down next to Cass, toeing off her ugly, lime green sneakers. Cass couldn’t even guess how she could walk in them - they were at least a size too small.

“You’re going to damage your feet if you keep wearing those, you do know that, right?” Cass said chidingly, automatically. She was a nurse's daughter, and it took no thought. She looked at the girl’s bare feet. “You’re pretty close already. Hammer toe can require surgery in serious cases.”

The girl cocked her at Cass, looking apologetic, and shrugged. Cass sighed, and grabbed her right foot. The girl stiffened, and Cass clicked her tongue irritably.

“I’m trying to help, don’t be a baby,” Cass ordered. The girl scowled half-heartedly, but let Cass work. Cass carefully forced each of her toes to full extension, then switched over to the other foot. She couldn’t fix it in one night, but at least she could get started. “I’ve got an extra pair of shoes upstairs. They might still pinch a bit, but they’re better than what you have now.”

The silence was almost comforting. Nothing she needed to do or think about, just the quiet noise of someone else breathing. At some point, Cass fell back asleep, adrenline-fueled panic gone and leaving her exhausted again.

When she woke up, the girl was gone. Cass looked around - nothing seemed out of place. The door was shut, the radio and tv were still there, Cass and her mom’s coats were still on the hook by the door. Her mom. Cass flushed. Now that the panic of last night had faded, it seemed obvious that her mom was still at the hospital. With all the people coming in, they must be swamped.

The hospital wouldn’t be the only ones swamped. The Bats probably were too.

Time for Watcher to get to work.

 


End file.
